Monthly Archives: April 2012

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Azadeh Boroumand. You likely didn’t know of this name before the first weekend of CrossFit Regional competition, and even if you did, it’s probably because you’re related to her, work out with her, or somehow remembered her from a few CrossFit.com videos she was in. That’s actually how I recognized the name, but I won’t act all high and mighty and tell you I knew all of her stats. Here’s some background that I found on the interwebs.

Boroumand is not a stranger to competition with her background in volleyball. She went to U. of Pittsburgh for it, but after college, wasn’t sure where she was headed. She ended up at Get Lifted, a gym in El Paso, TX run by Paul Smith (who incidentally placed 4th in the men’s division at the South Central Regionals) Boroumand was on the team for the Affiliate Cup at the 2010 Games and then placed 6th as an individual during the 2011 South Central Regionals. This year, she placed 45th in the world during the Open, but it was her performance at Regionals that really convinced people of her dominance.

One of the regions to kick off the season this past weekend was South Central where Azadeh Boroumand (first name pronounced AH-zah-deh) absolutely crushed the competition. She placed 2nd in the first event (“Diane”) and didn’t look back after that, placing 1st in every other event. Where else did we see this extremely rare occurrance? You got it, Iceland Annie’s regional performance last year. And oh yeah, Annie went on to win the 2011 CrossFit Games.

At 26 years of age, Boroumand stands at 5ft. 10in. and 155lbs. and is a great example that you can be a lean, feminine woman and STILL be a badass that is strong/agile/fast/etc. At the South Central region she blazed through the row/pistol/hang clean workout in just over 12 minutes, (beating her competition by over a minute and a half) and then proceeded to snatch 170#. What?! She even elected to not go on to the 175# bar since she already clinched first place for that workout. Going into the 6th and final event, she literally could have come in last and still would have maintained 1st place and gone to the Games. Staying consistent though, Azadeh came in 1st for that workout, securing her spot in the 2012 CrossFit Games. (note: both men and women had to complete the first mini-workout of Event 6 which included muscle ups and heavy deads in order to go to the Games) Out of the 6 workouts she did, she currently holds 4 of the best times/results out of the three regions that competed (South Central, South East, Canada West)

If you hop on the Boroumand Bandwagon, I don’t blame you. She’ll be a force at the Games, and clearly has the tools necessary to stand up to past winners Kristan Clever and Annie Thorisdottir.

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The CrossFit Regionals are spread out over 5 weekends, the first of which begins today! South West, South Central, and Canada West regionals kick off the Regionals season. Hit the picture below to learn how to follow the action. Seems like the Games site will have a ton of video feeds and social media updates going on throughout the competition.

While in Iceland, Ditty and I had a great time hiking and seeing a ton of natural beauty: waterfalls, mountains, volcanos, and landscapes from a picture book. (see the Flickr album in the post below) But it wouldn’t have been a vacation without visiting a CrossFit box. And not just any box, but the one that Iceland Annie trains in, CrossFit Reykjavik. In case you didn’t know “Iceland” Annie Thorisdottir, she won the 2011 CrossFit Games (and a cool $250,000) Annie also came in 2nd at the 2010 Games and 11th in the 2009 Games.

in case you forgot your shoes

CrossFit Reykjavik had some seriously big space and equipment. They need it because we were told they had 800 members! The class structure was different to accommodate that many people. All day they run open gym, where you warm up in one room, do the workout in another, and cool down on the side. Workouts start every 10 minutes and there are coaches in each room to supervise each part.

Ditty and I warmed up and did the daily WOD which was:

5 rounds for time of:

400m run

10 pull ups

30 box jumps, 60cm/50cm (24″/20″)

10 pull ups

I finished in a little over 20 minutes. After this gasser of a workout, we were told by the owner, Evert, that Annie would be arriving in an hour to train their Reykjavik team which placed 1st in the Europe region and 10th in the world. Evert said I was more than welcome to stay and train with them. After almost leaving to eat dinner, Ditty convinced me to stay and train with them. That’s what wives are for, right?

Annie arrived and got us started right away. It was awesome to hear her speak Icelandic to the team and recognize some of the words simply because there wasn’t a translation. We worked up to a heavy clean and jerk, focusing on form. They even had extra oly shoes for me!

After the C+J’s, we did 2008 CF Games’ final workout: 30 squat clean and jerks at 155# (105# for ladies). Between the daily WOD and not hydrating properly, I definitely felt those C+J’s! 10:00 flat, just made it under the cap that Annie set. Afterwards we worked on some muscle ups, but I was so dehydrated that when I jumped up for the rings, my calves cramped up BAD. Oof. Time to stand off to the side and talk to Annie.

Annie was really personable and easy to talk to. She mentioned that she is good friends with Rich Froning (men’s winner of the 2011 Games) and frequently checks in to see how workouts are going. She also said she was hoping that Josh Bridges and Mikko Salo could sneak into the 2012 Games because Josh will be in the States for the birth of his new baby and Mikko should be healed from knee surgery earlier this year. (this is purely speculation and not based on anything so don’t go spreading rumors) It was interesting to hear that she doesn’t really talk to a lot of the girls, mostly because she gets along with guys better (most of the guys out there are nodding their heads wishing they were those guys). I won’t give away all of her secrets, but it was very cool to talk with her.

I asked Annie about her training (she had just gotten back from Phoenix filming something for Reebok with Carl Paoli) and she said she’s glad to have a break before Regionals and the Games. Although her training had not gone backwards, she said it also wasn’t going forwards. While traveling, she’s been able to maintain her strength and skills, but she’s looking forward to spending time in Iceland progressing on everything.

Ditty and I had a great time at CF Reykjavik and highly recommend anyone to drop in and do a workout. Evert and Hronn are awesome and very welcoming and if you get the chance to meet Annie, she is equally cool.